Uthal (opera) - The Work

The Work

Uthal was part of the European vogue for the Ossianic poems of Macpherson. Another notable example from the time is the opera Ossian, ou Les bardes (1804) by Méhul's rival Jean-François Le Sueur. In fact, critics accused Méhul's librettist Saint-Victor of copying Les bardes, an allegation Saint-Victor rejected, claiming his work would have been ready in 1804 had it not been for a "host of obstacles".

Méhul's orchestration in Uthal is strikingly experimental. In his Treatise on Orchestration, Berlioz, an admirer of the composer, wrote, "Méhul was so struck by the kinship between the sound of violas and the dreamy character of Ossianic poetry that in his opera Uthal he used them constantly, even to the complete exclusion of the violins. The result, according to the critics of the day, was an intolerable monotony which ruined the opera's chances of success. This is what prompted Grétry to exclaim: 'I'd give a louis d'or for the sound of an E string!'" Part of this statement has been challenged. Edward Dent wrote, "It has been suggested that the opera would for this reason be unbearably tedious, but, as Sir Donald Tovey has pointed out, Uthal is in one act only and quite short, so that its peculiar colouring would hardly have time to become oppressive." In fact, contemporary critics praised Uthal, it was the public that was less enthusiastic and the opera was withdrawn after 15 performances.

The overture depicting the heroine Malvina crying out for her lost father amid the storm has been compared to similar opening music in Grétry's Aucassin et Nicolette and Gluck's Iphigénie en Tauride (both 1779). Winton Dean describes it as "athematic, at moments almost atonal, and in no definable form."